Unfortunately, I have no race to report on as this past week was not a race week for Formula One. However, I will focus my attention on the basics of the sport.
Starting with a brief overview of the basics, there are 10 teams on the grid currently. Each team consists of 2 drivers. Each season has 23 races across the globe. Each race begins on Friday with 2 preliminary practice sessions. Then on Saturday, drivers complete a third practice session as well as a qualifying race. Then on Sunday, it’s lights out and the actual race commences.
Qualifying is where the drivers get the determine the order they will be starting in for the race on Sunday. It begins with qualifying 1 (Q1) and each driver has a chance to get their fastest lap time around the track. The slowest five drivers at the end of Q1 are eliminated and on to Q2 the rest of the drivers go. The same thing continues through Q2, and when only 10 drivers are left in Q3 the remaining bunch fight for the top spot. The preliminary pole position is at the start of the grid and is what every driver aims for during qualifying.
For the race on Sunday, drivers must rely on their team just as much as their skill to get them through a race. Strategists are one of the focal points of a driver’s success. They decide when to tell the driver to come to the pits for fresh tires, and how many times they need to bring that driver into the pits. A faulty pit stop can cause the driver to lose positions in the race. The pit crew is also an important aspect of the race, as they oversee getting the car in and out of the pits (this usually lasts 2 seconds). Most importantly the engineers that constructed the vehicle adjust it based on the race before, so there are constant changes to the car. If the changes were done improperly or not executed well then by the time race day rolls around the car could be extremely slow, or almost feel alien to the driver.
There are two championships in Formula One, one being the driver’s championship and the other being the constructor’s championship (the team championship). The accumulated points from each go towards the championship that is decided after the final race. Drivers that place below tenth (p10) do not gain points toward the championship. The drivers that are p3 and above in a race place podium and get a trophy specific to the race, as well as get to spray champagne at the end. The winner of the race gets 25 points along with their constructor. An additional point is given to the driver who got the fastest lap time during the race (the little purple stopwatch next to a driver’s name indicates this).
Funding, especially in Formula One, has an immense impact on the success of a team. When a team does well in the constructor’s championship, they, in turn, get more funding. But in Formula One outside sponsors play a big factor in the success of the team as well. This is very different from Indy car which is an equal playing field construction-wise and focuses more on driver skills. NASCAR as well does not have the same components as Formula One and does not consist of the same vehicle style, therefore it is much slower.
If you ever want to tune into a race, they are streamed on Hulu’s live TV plan, ESPN+, Sling TV, and F1 TV. There is also a documentary/ reality TV show that follows the drivers and their drama for each season currently on Netflix called Drive to Survive. The race this weekend is at 8 am EST if you would like to watch it!
I think that the way that the drivers determine positions in the races is so interesting. Every time that they go out to race, they have to compete beforehand. This reminds me of major swimming and track events, where you have the prelims, and then how well you do in them determine your position for the finals, which is the race that counts. I also love the fact that this is a team sport, you wouldn’t expect that, as there is only one driver, but I never even thought about how the engineers have to work on the cars in between every race. Formula One just keeps on getting interesting!
I love this post, for I know absolutely nothing about Formula One and its rules. While it’s unfortunate that there was no race to report on this week, this post was very well-written and it was helpful to learn how the sport actually works. One thing I never really considered is how Formula One racing is not just all about the driver – it’s about the car, the pit crew, and so many other factors that could affect the driver’s performance! I find that very interesting. You would think that racing would be more of an individual sport, but when you think about all the things that go into a Formula One race, it could almost be considered a team sport.